To consider a north-facing garden

[wink1970]

I have seen 2 houses, both perfect, but with north-facing gardens. I keep being told they will never be warm, but does anyone have a different viewpoint? Surely they get sun rising to the right and setting to the left?

I think I'm trying to talk myself into it!

Sorry to make that more useful to you, look at the shape of the garden, how overlooked it is as you may get pockets of sunshine at certain points of the day.

Our back garden is north facing. It's fairly big so the sections out of the shadow of the house are fine. It also still seems quite warm enough for a barbecue. I think it's ideal really, as the section next to the house is gravel that never gets weeds (even though the weed mat died).

I had one and it was pretty limiting. Bbq and evening drinks outside were bloody freezing. Meanwhile my drive would be basking in the sun.

Which rooms in the house are at the back and which at the front, if most of the living space is at the back the house will seem dark and cold. Sunlight makes a big difference to the feel of a house, as well as making the garden more usable.

Our garden goes all around the house but the North side is noticeably cooler and damper - for example when we had a new roof the tiles on that side were the first to weather in and it's the last part of the garden to dry after rain. But it does get some sun too. It really depends on what is nearby causing shade (especially how small it is and therefore how close to the house it is). If our North side were the only side I don't think I'd like it as much.

You're asking in the wrong place. On Mumsnet, everyone's either living in detached 4+ bed house with an acre of south west facing garden or is stuck in a small rented flat with kids. The former wouldn't entertain anything less than a south west facing garden because North facing garden feels like Antarctica at all times, attracts penguins and your house is always dark and cold like a cave (as apparently all rooms are also north facing!)

Our north facing garden gets plenty of sun in summer. It's long so house shadow doesn't matter in summer. In winter it's so dark and damp though.

We live in a newish build (9yrs old), & have a north-facing garden. It's part of the reason we bought it - the builders were struggling to sell them so we got a discount!
It's 4 long fence panels long. We houses either side (we're semi-detached) but each house drives & garages. Behind us is a bungalow.
The sun is currently on the bottom half of our garden - we'll have sun at the bottom for all the day till the sun starts to set. We'll get sun on our patio from about 2pm till 6pm - in the summer we have to have a parasol up if we're out eating.
Growing things can be a challenge but we have lots of fruit trees, bushes, herbs, various plants which all seem to do ok (cherry, blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries, loganberries, strawberries, daffodils, hellebores, bay, chives, buddleia, honeysuckle etc)
Our front garden is full of sun-loving herbs (rosemary, lavender, thyme, sage) & our living room at the front is usually very warm. Our DC bedrooms are at the back so less sunlight in them is very welcome when it comes to trying to get them to sleep in the summer.

I love ours. We have a cool kitchen and deck (godsend when it's hot) which looks out into sunny (very cheerful) half the garden always in sun, other half all gets sun at some point

We have a North facing garden and have built a patio with two garden sofas and a full size dining table on it. The sun is there till the early evening. I am not keen on too much sun so often sit in the shade anyway.

I’ve got a SW garden and love it. During lockdown it was great sitting out there in the evening or sometimes in the kiddie paddling pool with a glass of Rose in hand.

I personally wouldn’t want a N facing garden. Pre lockdown our friends with a N garden were always trying to have BBQs at ours. Hardly anything grows in their garden either.

Moved from an NFG which was ok but you had to entertain at the bottom of the garden. The nearby houses meant we'd lost the sun by 6-7pm in the summer. Also, the grass would never grow in one corner and one back corner of the house was prone to getting algae and moss grow on the brickwork.

We've recently discounted houses that have NGF's as we're massively green fingered and spend a lot of time outside and love the idea of being able to open the bifolds and sit right outside without having to cart everything down the garden.

Thanks all

@Moomin12345 that made me laugh, you summarised the 2 types of responses I've had from friends!

Also, does anyone have a completely east-facing garden? when do you lose the sun over the house?

Mine is S/E and I'm trying to convince DH that East is fine as we would just have the main patio on the end (as we do now).

Ours is small and North facing but since I prefer shade to heat it's fine. The only issue we have had is with grass which gets muddy and mossy.

On warm days it's still warm. If I sit in full sun I get a headache and I would never choose to sit out the front in the full glare of heat.

It's lovely if your living room is NF. Makes it beautifully cool in the summer

We have a long north facing garden and it's lovely and sunny right through the day. It also means our lounge gets the last of the day's sun and the bedrooms at the back are lovely and cool in the height of summer.

All this talk of lovely shade and beautifully cool rooms - do you live in the UK? That was nice when I lived abroad, but 95% of the time here I can’t stand sitting outside unless I’m in direct sun because it’s just cold.

The sunniest rooms in my house were too warm for about two days last year. I’m in the NW, is it really that much worse up here?

Don't do it.. in any circumstances

@MangosteenSoda

All this talk of lovely shade and beautifully cool rooms - do you live in the UK? That was nice when I lived abroad, but 95% of the time here I can’t stand sitting outside unless I’m in direct sun because it’s just cold.

The sunniest rooms in my house were too warm for about two days last year. I’m in the NW, is it really that much worse up here?

Yes. I'm in the south east and I can't sit outside when it's hot. A south facing garden would be awful for me

Last year it was ideal

Must be. Didn't you get the heatwaves we have had for the last three years? ( I'm in the Midlands).

Lot of wet microclimates, of course. Trendy spots too close the west side of mountains, places with 'lake' in their name, Cornwall etc.

I wasn’t in the UK in 2018 when even my parents complained about the heat, but I honestly didn’t notice any heatwaves during the last two summers. Few hot days here and there and a stretch of bright days in spring, but no sustained heat. We might have different definitions of hot

Where are these wet trendy spots of which you speak? I’ve heard that description a few times on here.

I’m in the NW, is it really that much worse up here?

Yes. There were record-breaking heatwaves in July 2019 and August 2020 but it was hottest in the east and south-east. I’m in the Midlands and we had plenty of hot days.

The definition of a heatwave in NW England is three or more days over 25°C but if you’re used to very hot climates you might not consider this exceptional.

I’m in the NW, is it really that much worse up here?

Not only is it so much worse in the NW it is also much worse the further east and north you are in the NW, its frequently a few degrees cooler inland than on the coast

A north facing garden in the north west would be significantly cooler than anything down south or in a city. I can only sit in our north facing front garden when it's lost the sun in the afternoon in comfort without feeling cold for about 6 weeks of the year.

The south facing back garden gets proper too hot though in the summer.

Think west facing is best generally for a nice general warmth, some shade, and light in the evening when you want it.